India’s stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan played a terrific knock against the New Zealand cricket team in the first of the three-match ODI series at Eden Park in Auckland.
The experienced southpaw scored 72 off 77 balls with the help of 13 boundaries at a pretty decent strike-rate of 93.51. Moreover, stitched a 124-run partnership with Shubman Gill for the opening wicket.
Team India posted 306/7 in their quota of 50 overs, thanks to Shreyas Iyer’s 80 and Washington Sundar’s quickfire 37 off 16 in the slog overs. On the other hand, Umran Malik took 2 wickets to his name.
He dismissed the likes of Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell. Shardul Thakur got rid of Finn Allen in the 8th over. Despite losing 3 wickets, the hosts found support in the form of Tom Latham and Lane Williamson.
The duo stitched together a match-winning stand of 221 runs for the fourth wicket. New Zealand won the game by seven wickets, with the help of Tom Latham’s 145 and Kane Williamson’s 94.
Ravi Shastri heaps praise on Shikhar Dhawan
Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has reserved the highest respect for experienced cricketer Shikhar Dhawan for the way he has been approaching himself with regards to international cricket.
Shastri added that the spotlight is always on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. However, at the same time, Shikhar Dhawan’s records, statistics and his contribution to the game is not talked about these days.
Dhawan notched up his 39th ODI fifty against New Zealand today but sadly ended up on the losing side. Talking about his statistics, he has played 162 ODIs, scoring 6744 runs at an average of 45.26 including 17 centuries.
Shastri is of the opinion that Dhawan doesn’t get the accolades he deserves. He further added that Dhawan is vastly experienced and highlighted that the southpaw has played superbly against the top teams in big stages.
With the first game coming to a close in New Zealand’s favour, India will be looking forward to turning things around in the second ODI in order to stay alive in the series. The second ODI will begin on November 27, Sunday at Seddon Park, Hamilton.
